History of the
Constitution

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CROWNED
DEMOCRACY (1821-1864)

1. THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION (THE FIRST HELLENIC
REPUBLIC)The beginning of the struggle for independence
brought about the first local regimes (the Senate Organization of
Western Greece, the Legal Order of Eastern Greece and the
Peloponnesian Senate Organization). These texts were voted by local
Assemblies and had as a goal the temporary governmental and military
organization of the Nation, until the future establishment of the
"Parliament of the Nation".

The first Constitution of Greece came into being during the First
National Assembly of Epidaurus, which voted, on January 1st, 1822,
the "Temporary Constitution of Greece".

The Assembly included representatives from the Peloponnese,
Eastern and Western Greece, and certain islands. The Constitution of
1822 consisted of 110 short paragraphs, broken down into "titles"
and "sections", according to the French model. It was entitled
"Temporary Constitution of Greece" because the authors were afraid
of the reaction of the Holy Alliance. It included a few clauses
guaranteeing the protection of human rights, while as far as the
organization of the government was concerned, it allowed for the
representative principle as well as for the principle of separation
of powers. Hence, the "Administration" consisted of the
"Parliamentary" and the "Executive" branches, both collective bodies
serving yearly terms, which counterbalanced one another in the
legislative process. The "Judiciary" was independent of the two
other powers, albeit elected by them, whereas justice was dispensed
by the "Criteria", i.e. the courts.

The Temporary Constitution of Epidaurus was revised a year later,
on April 13th, 1823, by the Second National Assembly, which convened
in Astros of Kynouria. The new Constitution, "The Epidaurus Law", as
it was named, to stress its continuity with the one of 1822, was
legally more articulate as compared to its predecessor, and it
allowed a slight superiority to the Legislative power as opposed to
the Executive, given the fact that the latter's veto power was
circumcised from an absolute to a suspending one. The new
Constitution also marked an improvements as far as the protection of
human rights was concerned: property was protected, as was the honor
and the security not only of Greeks but of all persons in the
territory; it established the freedom of the press and abolished
slavery. It also abolished local governments. However, the great
disadvantage of the yearly term of the "Administrative" branches
remained unaltered, a result of the ever-growing distrust between
politicians and the military. The Assembly of Astros passed a new
electoral law, according to which the right to vote was bestowed to
"men" rather than to "seniors", while the voting age went down from
30 to 25 years.

The polyarchical nature of the two Constitutions initially
favored the conflicts between the Parliamentary and the
Administrative branches, which soon thereafter developed into a rift
and, eventually, into a civil war. This gave the opportunity to
foreign "protecting" powers to intervene systematically into Greek
political life.

The Third National Assembly initially convened in Piada in 1825
and subsequently in Troizena in 1827, and after unanimously electing
John Capodistrias as "Governor of Greece" for a seven-year term, it
voted the "Political Constitution of Greece". The Assembly wanted to
give the country a stable government, modeled on democratic and
liberal ideas, and for this reason it declared for the first time
the principle of popular sovereignty: "Sovereignty lies with the
people; every power derives from the people and exists for the
people". This key democratic principle was repeated in all the Greek
Constitutions after 1864.

This Constitution consisted of 150 articles. It established a
strict separation of powers, vesting the executive power to the
Governor and assigning to the body of the representatives of the
people, named Boule, the legislative power. The Governor only a
suspending veto on the bills, while he lacked the right to dissolve
the Parliament. He was "inviolable", while the "Secretaries of the
State", in other words the Ministers, assumed the responsibility for
his public actions (thus introducing into the text of the 1827
Constitution the first elements of the so called "parliamentary
principle").

It is noteworthy that, among the constitutions of its time, the
Constitution of Troizena has the most complete and closely
formulated provisions for the protection of human rights.

The Constitution of Troizena attempted to combine the need for a
powerful central authority with the existence of democratic
structures, but it was suspended shortly after the arrival in Greece
of John Capodistrias, in January of 1828.

2. THE PERIOD OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHYIn the midst of
political unrest, Otto arrived in Nauplio in 1833, with the support
of the "protecting" powers of Great Britain, France and Russia. He
was proclaimed "God Given King of Greece" and the Greek state was
proclaimed a monarchy, the independent "Kingdom of Greece". In the
speech Otto gave when he assumed his responsibilities there was no
allusion to the Constitution. Due to his young age, and until his
coming of age, his powers were exercised by a Regency.

During the ten-year long period of the autocratic government by
Otto, the first steps toward the country's administrative
organization were taken, The judicial system was organized, certain
fundamental pieces of legislation were introduced (such as the
Commercial Law, the Criminal Law and the Laws for Civil and Criminal
Procedure), the Government's Gazette was founded, and finally, in
1834, the capital of the Kingdom was moved from Nauplio to
Athens.

However, the basic characteristics of that period were the lack
of a Constitution, arbitrary government, the precarious economic
situation and the autocratic legal system.

3. THE PERIOD OF CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHYOn December
3rd, 1843, the military garrison of Athens, with the help of
citizens, rebelled and demanded from Otto the concession to a
Constitution.

The Constitution that ensued in March of 1844 from the workings
of the "Third of September National Assembly of the Hellenes in
Athens" was a Constitutional Pact, in other words a contract between
the monarch and the Nation. This Constitution re-established the
Constitutional Monarchy and was based on the French Constitution of
1830 and the Belgian Constitution of 1831.

Its main provisions were the following: It established the
principle of monarchical sovereignty, as the monarch was the
decisive power of the State; the legislative power was to be
exercised by the King - who also had the right to ratify the laws -
by the Parliament, and by the Senate. The members of the Parliament
could be no less than 80 and they were elected for a three-year term
by universal suffrage. The senators were appointed for life by the
King and their number was set at 27, although that number could
increase should the need arise and per the monarch's will, but it
could not exceed half the number of the members of Parliament.

The ministers' responsibility for the King's actions is
established, who also appoints and removes them. Justice stems from
the King and is dispensed in his name by the judges he himself
appoints.

Lastly, this Assembly voted the electoral law of March 18th,
1844, which was the first European law to provide, in essence, for
universal suffrage (but, only, of course, for men).

Despite the fact that Otto accepted the establishment of a
Constitutional regime, he was not inclined to enforce it and by
breaking both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution he tried
to gather as much power as he possibly could. On the night of
October 10th, 1862, the rising wave of discontent led the people and
the military to rebel and to decide Otto's deposition.

THE FIRST PERIOD OF CROWNED DEMOCRACY (1864-1922)

1. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1864

The Second National Assembly of the Hellenes took place in Athens
(1863-1864) and dealt both with the election of a new sovereign as
well as with the drafting of a new Constitution, thereby
implementing the transition from constitutional monarchy to Crowned
Democracy.

Following the refusal of prince Alfred of Great Britain (who was
elected by an overwhelming majority in the first referendum of the
country in November 1862) to accept the crown of the Greek kingdom,
the government offered the crown to the Danish prince George
Christian Willem of the House of Holstein - Sonderburg -
Glucksbourg, who was crowned constitutional King of Greece under the
name "George I, King of the Hellenes".

The Constitution of 1864 was drafted following the models of the
Constitutions of Belgium of 1831 and of Denmark of 1849, and
established in clear terms the principle of popular sovereignty,
since the only legislative body with reversionary powers was now the
Parliament. Furthermore, article 31 reiterated that all the powers
stemmed from the Nation and were to be exercised as provided by the
Constitution, while article 44 established the principle of
accountability, taking into consideration that the King only
possessed the powers that were bestowed on him by the Constitution
and by the laws applying the same.

The Assembly chose the system of a single chamber Parliament with
a four-year term, and hence abolished the Senate, which many accused
for being a tool in the hands of the monarchy. Direct, secret and
universal elections was adopted as the manner to elect the MPs,
while elections were to be held simultaneously throughout the entire
nation.

In addition, article 71 introduced a conflict between being an MP
and a salaried public employee or mayor at the same time, but not
with serving as an army officer.

The Constitution reiterated various clauses found in the
Constitution of 1844, such as that the King appoints and dismisses
the ministers and that the latter are responsible for the person of
the monarch, but it also allowed for the Parliament to establish
"examination committees". Moreover, the King preserved the right to
convoke the Parliament in ordinary as well as in extraordinary
sessions, and to dissolve it at his discretion, provided, however,
that the dissolution decree was also countersigned by the
Cabinet.

2. THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PARLIAMENTARY PRINCIPLEThe
Constitution repeated verbatim the clause of article 24 of the
Constitution of 1844, according to which "The King appoints and
removes his Ministers". This phrase insinuated that the ministers
were practically subordinate to the monarch, and thereby answered
not only to the Parliament but to him as well. Moreover, nowhere was
it stated in the Constitution that the King was obliged to appoint
the Cabinet in conformity with the will of the majority in
Parliament. This was, however, the interpretation that the
modernizing political forces of the land upheld, invoking the
principle of popular sovereignty and the spirit of the Parliamentary
regime. They finally succeeded in imposing it through the principle
of "manifest confidence" of the Parliament, which was expressed in
1875 by Charilaos Trikoupis and which, that same year, in his Crown
Speech, King George I expressly pledged to uphold: "I demand as a
prerequisite, of all that I call beside me to assist me in governing
the country, to possess the manifest confidence and trust of the
majority of the Nation's representatives. Furthermore, I accept this
approval to stem from the Parliament, as without it the harmonious
functioning of the polity would be impossible".

The establishment of the principle of "manifest confidence"
towards the end of the first decade of the crowned democracy,
contributed towards the disappearance of a constitutional practice
which, in many ways, reiterated the negative experiences of the
period of the reign of King Otto. Indeed, from 1864 through 1875
numerous elections of dubious validity had taken place, while,
additionally and most importantly, there was an active involvement
of the Throne in political affairs through the appointment of
governments enjoying a minority in Parliament, or through the forced
resignation of majority governments, when their political views
clashed with those of the crown.

3. THE INNOVATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 1911The
Constitution of 1864 remained unaltered until 1911. However, the end
of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th signaled
significant sociopolitical changes and realignments. The rise of the
middle class, the shift in the role of the military, the gradual
disappearance or weakening of the old political parties and
practices, and the new economic conditions exercised strong pressure
on a political structure modeled to respond to different criteria.
At a political, administrative, and social level the result of these
changes was the "military coup" in Goudi (1909).

The outcome of this rebellion was the rise to power of Elefterios
Venizelos - head of the Liberal Party - and the revision of the
Constitution of 1864 by the Second Reversionary Parliament. The
pivotal points of the 1911 revision (which, strictly speaking, was
not a revision but the exercise of original constitutional
authority) were the reinforcement of human rights ("the public law
of the Hellenes" according to the terminology of the time), the
reinforcement of the Rule of Law and the modernization of
institutions.

The most noteworthy amendments to the Constitution of 1864
concerning the protection of human rights, were the more effective
protection of personal security, equality in tax burdens, of the
right to assemble and of the inviolability of the domicile.
Furthermore, the Constitution facilitated expropriation to allocate
property to landless farmers, while simultaneously judicially
protecting property rights.

Other important changes included the institution of an Electoral
Court for the settlement of election disputes stemming from the
parliamentary elections, the addition of new conflicts for MPs, the
re-establishment of the State Council as the highest administrative
court (which, however, was constituted and operated only under the
Constitution of 1927), the improvement of the protection of judicial
independence and the establishment of the non-removability of public
employees. Finally, for the first time, the Constitution provided
for mandatory and free education for all, and declared a form of
pure Greek language as the "official language of the Nation".

4. THE CRISIS YEARSThe considerable divergence of
opinion that arose in 1915 between King Constantine and prime
minister El. Venizelos as to the direction the nation should follow
in its international relations lead the country into a deep crisis
and culminated into a national rift, resulting in an unstable
political life. On a constitutional level, the disputes concentrated
on the extent to which the King should have the right to appoint the
Cabinet, the right to terminate ministers, and the right to dissolve
the Parliament. The period from 1915 to 1920 was one of major
internal unrest (marked by the co-existence of two cabinets, the
occupation of Greek territory by foreign powers, and political
actions outside the realm of any constitutional legality) but was
also an extremely important period, as the national territory
augmented considerably.

In November of 1920 parliamentary elections took place during
which the royalist powers prevailed. King Constantine returned to
the throne by referendum, and the Third National Assembly in Athens
was called upon to revise the Constitution, a project which,
notwithstanding the extremely interesting and innovative proposals
that had been set forth, was not carried through, due to the
disaster in Asia Minor.

Following the defeat of the Greek armed forces in Asia Minor on
September 11th, 1922, a military revolution took place lead by N.
Plastiras which dissolved the Constitutional Assembly and forced
King Constantine to abdicate once again.

THE SECOND HELLENIC REPUBLIC (1924-1935)

1. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1927On January 2nd, 1924, the
Fourth National Assembly convened and decided on the abrogation of
the dynasty as well as on the abolition of the crowned democracy (a
decision which was ratified by referendum on April 13th, 1924).

Whilst the Fourth Constitutional Assembly was working towards the
completion of the new Constitution, the coup d'etat of General Th.
Pangalos took place. After the fall of his dictatorship in 1926, the
"Parliament of the First Term" was elected, which, finally, voted
through the Constitution of 1927.

This Constitution was particularly interesting both for its
provisions on social rights and for the new political institutions
it introduced in its organizational section. In the chapter covering
the "public law of the Hellenes", the Constitution of 1927 improved
the protection of some individual rights (e.g. the freedom of the
press) and established for the first time in Greece certain social
rights (protection of work, protection of the family, etc.).
However, the most significant characteristic of the new Constitution
was that it provided for an elected head of state, chosen by the
Parliament and the Senate for a five-year term. The President of the
Republic was politically unaccountable, he did not possess
legislative authority and he could dissolve the Parliament with the
approval of the Senate.

Legislative power was exercised by the Parliament and the Senate.
The Parliament was made up of 200-250 members elected for a
four-year term by direct, secret and universal ballot. The Senate
was composed of 120 members elected for a nine-year term, but its
synthesis was renewed every three years by 1/3. At least 9/12 of the
senators were elected by the people, 1/12 by the Parliament and the
Senate in a common session at the onset of each Parliamentary term,
whereas the remaining 2/12 were elected on the basis of a principle
of representation of the professions.

In the event of disagreement between the two chambers in the
voting of a law, the Constitution established the supremacy of the
Parliament's vote.

Another significant element was the explicit institution of the
parliamentary system. For the first time, the Greek Constitution
included a clause stating that the Cabinet must "enjoy the
confidence of the Parliament".

2. THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE MONARCHYThe Second
Hellenic Republic lasted until 1935. That year, as a result of a
failed coup by the supporters of Venizelos, the Constitution of 1927
was abolished, the Constitution of 1911 was re-instated, and in the
midst of extreme political instability King George came back to the
throne by referendum. In August 1936 the parliamentary prime
minister I. Metaxas declared a dictatorship, which lasted until the
occupation of Greece by German forces in 1941.

3. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE LIBERATIONAfter the
liberation of Greece in the fall of 1944, the Constitution of 1911
was again activated, albeit deformed due to the illiberal measures
introduced via constitutional acts and resolutions of the turbulent
period of the Liberation and the civil war. On January 1st, 1952,
after a period of deliberations that lasted approximately 5 years,
the new Constitution was finally voted.

THE SECOND PERIOD OF CROWNED DEMOCRACY
(1952-1967)

1. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1952Due to the unusual
socio-political conditions in effect during its drafting, the
Constitution of 1952 was conservative and remained to a great extent
faithful to the constitutional texts of 1864/1911 and 1927.

Its basic innovation was the explicit introduction of the
parliamentary system within a regime of Crowned Democracy.

The responsibilities of the King remained the same as described
in the previous Constitution of 1911.

There were few innovations in the articles relating to the
Parliament. The number of parliamentarians for each electoral
district was to be determined according to their population, but the
total number of parliamentarians could not be under 150 or over
300.

Through two interpretative clauses, under articles 66 and 70, it
was provided that the exercise of the right to vote could be made
mandatory by law and that the right to vote and be elected in
Parliament could be extended to women by law.

According to article 35, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, through
the duration of the parliamentary term, while the Parliament was
absent or in recess, the King had the authority to issue legal
decrees to regulate extremely urgent matters with the consent of a
special committee of parliamentarians, which was appointed at the
beginning of each session and remained competent until the beginning
of the next session.

2. POLITICAL LIFE AND THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIPOn
February 21st, 1963, a proposal for the revision of the Constitution
was tabled, the so-called "deep incision". This revision never took
place because the Cabinet lead by Constantine Karamanlis resigned in
June of that same year, and a few months later the Parliament was
dissolved.

The political crisis that manifested itself on July 15th, 1965
was one of the deepest of the post-war era. Once again, issues
concerning the functioning of the parliamentary regime were up for
discussion and brought about a confrontation between the prime
minister at the time, George Papandreou - chief of the Coalition of
the Center, which enjoyed the majority in Parliament, and King
Constantine, and the Cabinets the latter was trying to impose.

The military dictatorship of April 21st, 1967, which lasted seven
years, passed two Constitutional texts, in 1968 and 1973, the latter
providing for a system of government without a King. These
constitutional texts had certain undemocratic characteristics, they
were of unusually conservative mentality, and were never entirely
applied.

THE THIRD HELLENIC REPUBLIC (1974 - )

1. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1975After the reinstatement of
Democracy in the Country in July 1974, the National Unity
government, led by C. Karamanlis, set forth as its first goal to
strengthen democracy and to obliterate the traumatic experiences of
the civil war. It reinstated the Constitution of 1952, with the
exception of the clauses relating to the King. The first free
parliamentary elections took place on November 17, 1974, and on
December 8 of that same year a referendum was conducted to decide
about the nature of the form of government. The electoral body, by a
majority of 69.18%, expressed its will against crowned democracy,
thus once and for settling the issue of the form of government in
Greece.

The Constitution of 1975 was composed using as a basis those of
1952 and 1927, as well as the revision proposal of 1963. Numerous
clauses were also based on the West German Constitution of 1949 and
the French constitution of 1958. Despite the significant
disagreements caused by the original constitutional draft (which had
then been prepared by the Cabinet of C. Karamanlis) the final draft
gradually secured the largest possible assent of the significant
political powers in the country.

The Constitution of 1975 included an array of individual and
social rights, tailored to the needs of that time. It introduced a
presidential parliamentary republic form of government, wherein the
head of the state maintained the right to interfere in political
life. The Rule of Law was effectively protected, and there was a
provision for the participation of the country in international
organisations and - indirectly - to the European Economic
Community.

2. THE REVISIONS OF 1986 AND 2001Despite the fact that
the "increased" responsibilities of the President of the Republic
were never exercised until 1986, by virtue of their mere existence
they influenced the development of political affairs from 1980 to
1985, specifically during the first co-existence of C. Karamanlis as
President of the Republic with the government of PASOK. The
responsibilities of the President of the Republic were the target of
the revisionary proceedings of 1985-1986.

On March 6, 1986, pursuant to article 110 of the Constitution,
which stipulates that the provisions of the Constitution are subject
to revision except for those which determine the form of government
as a Parliamentary Republic as well as certain other provisions,
eleven articles were amended and a vote was passed transposing the
text of the Constitution into demotic Greek.

Through this revision the responsibilities of the President of
the Republic were curtailed to a significant extent. Despite the
political and the constitutional tensions of that period, the
revised Constitution of 1975/1986, which introduced a pure
parliamentary governmental system, was accepted by all political
powers.

In the spring of 2001 a new, more extensive revision of the
Constitution was voted in a consensual climate. It is noteworthy
that, despite the fact that a total of seventy-nine articles of the
Constitution were amended, in the majority of the cases the
amendments was accepted by four fifths of all the parliamentarians,
so the term "consensual revision" reflects the political
reality.

The revised Constitution introduced new individual rights (such
as the protection of genetic identity or the protection of personal
data from electronic processing), it introduced new rules of
transparency in political life (regarding e.g. the financing of
political parties, electoral expenditures, the relations of media
owners with the State, etc.), it reorganised the operation of the
Parliament and it reinforced decentralisation. However, this
revision did not touch upon any major issues concerning the
operation of the form of government, and this differentiates it
characteristically from the revision of 1986.

Today Greece possesses a Constitution which enjoys political and
historical legitimacy, is modern, it is adapted to international
developments and, despite possible reservations on particular
issues, provides a satisfactory institutional framework for Greece
in the 21st century.